Dr. Brian Mawhinney (North-West Cambridgeshire):
I am happy to accept unreservedly the unreserved apology of the hon. Member for Oldham, East and Saddleworth (Mr. Woolas).

Madam Speaker:
That is the end of the matter.

Mr. Michael Colvin (Romsey):
On a point of order, Madam Speaker. I know that you deplore long oral questions and equally discourage Ministers from giving long answers. Unfortunately, answers from the Dispatch Box tend to be longer, because Ministers want to give as much information as possible and the answers are read out.

Madam Speaker:
The hon. Gentleman is correct: oral questions should not be read, but should be memorised and worked out over lunch; they should be two or three lines long and to the point, and they should be delivered briskly. Hon. Members should not come to the House not knowing what they are going to ask in their supplementary question, which should certainly not be read. Of course, from time to time one has to look at the odd word.

Madam Speaker:
I shall take the hon. Gentleman's point of order as I think I have the answer that he wants.

Mr. Cash:
In my exchanges with the Secretary of State for Scotland yesterday, I raised what I termed the United Kingdom question. I then found it necessary to table an instruction last night, the effect of which would be to ensure that, if the House deemed it necessary, amendments would be tabled to the Bill to extend the franchise to the electorate of the United Kingdom as a whole. Following discussions this morning, I have been given to understand that you, Madam Speaker, may be prepared to give a ruling on the matter so that we can be sure that we shall be able to table amendments to extend the franchise to the electorate of the United Kingdom as a whole. May I ask for your ruling on the matter?

Madam Speaker:
I have carefully considered the instruction tabled by the hon. Gentleman and decided not to select it for the simple reason that, in this case, it is unnecessary. The hon. Gentleman and any other hon. Members may table such amendments as he has in mind.

4.12 pm

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Peter Hain):
My contribution to the Welsh part of the Bill will be brief and will serve as an hors d'oeuvre to the main course provided by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. It is a privilege and an honour to be a Minister in the Welsh Office during one of the most exciting and reforming periods in the history of Welsh politics. For the first time in 18 long and miserable years, is it not wonderful to have a Secretary of State who can speak with authority for Wales because he represents a constituency in Wales? He is not a Welsh leader who treats his important office as a platform for his crackpot ideology or one for whom the office is a youth training scheme. The Secretary of State is a man of the people and will govern for the people of Wales.

democracy in which decisions will be brought closer to the people. Under our new Welsh Assembly, power will shift down from Westminster to Wales. There will be a new partnership with local government, which will be liberated from the suffocating centralised control of the Tory years. It will unite all parts of Wales--north and south, east and west, valleys and towns, rural and urban areas.

Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) seem popular in Wales. It is important to ask why the Conservatives are so frightened of giving the people a say. Is it because many Tories will also vote yes? I remind the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague) that only one Welsh Conservative--Viscount St. Davids--has so far spoken on devolution in this Parliament, and he supported a Welsh Assembly. Is that to be a pattern for the Conservative party in Wales, or part of the constantly shifting fudge of Welsh Tory politics in the new era?